Within Classroom Variation is not Noise: Predictors and Impacts of Varied ECE Experiences

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Despite clear evidence that high quality education positively impacts the development of young children primarily through teacher-child interactions (e.g., Phillips et al., 2017), small effect sizes and measurement concerns (Gordon & Peng, 2020) point to a need for continued progress in approaches to defining and measuring classroom experiences and their impact on children’s development. This panel focuses on one promising tool that utilizes a snapshot procedure to gather numerous datapoints about classroom experiences across a school day, and together the four papers demonstrate the flexibility and utility of this measurement strategy in describing and exploring child and teacher behaviors.
Papers 1 and 2 examine variation and patterns of teachers’ and children’s behaviors in the classroom, including differences across three observation timing, setting of the interaction (teacher-directed vs child-directed), and average children’s skills at the beginning of the school year. Findings indicate that each of these factors play a role in the amount or quality of instruction provided by teachers as well as for children’s likelihood to actively engage in classroom activities. Paper 3 combines snapshots of individual children’s experiences across a school day to describe variation of experiences across children. Findings related to children’s demographic characteristics point to important areas of needed professional development. Finally, paper 4 demonstrates how teachers’ micro-level practices associate with children’s cognitive and social-emotional growth. Numerous important implications for research, practice, and policy will be discussed.

Sub Unit

• Education, Schooling

Chair

• Sherri L Castle, University of Oklahoma

Individual Presentations

• Stability of Teacher Behaviors and the Effects of Children’s Entering Skills - Presenting Author: Dale C Farran, Vanderbilt University; Non-Presenting Author: Kimberly Turner Nesbitt, University of New Hampshire

• Stability of Children’s Classroom Behaviors Across Time and Settings - Presenting Author: Kimberly Turner Nesbitt, University of New Hampshire; Non-Presenting Author: Dale C Farran, Vanderbilt University

• Individual Experiences in ECE Classrooms: Variation by Home Language - Presenting Author: Sherri L Castle, University of Oklahoma; Non-Presenting Author: Shinyoung Jeon, University of Oklahoma; Non-Presenting Author: Elizabeth Frechette; Non-Presenting Author: Boo Young Lim, The University of Oklahoma

• Linking Micro-features of Quality to Children’s Skills in a Statewide Population Study of Children’s Early Education - Non-Presenting Author: Emily Hanno, MDRC (Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation) - New York City; Non-Presenting Author: Katie Gonzalez, Mathematica; Presenting Author: Kerry Guess Hofer, Abt Associates - Maryland; Non-Presenting Author: Rosa Guzman Turco, Harvard University; Non-Presenting Author: Stephanie M Jones, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Non-Presenting Author: Nonie K Lesaux, Harvard Graduate School of Education